By tearing down data silos, this Disruptor energized and improved workflow – enabling the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) to better connect with members.
It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that the person tasked with overseeing technology at the National Association of School Nurses is by nature a nurturing person. Sharon Conley, Web-based Technology Director at the NASN, loves to dig deep to help the people she works with deal with issues big and small—sometimes discovering innovative solutions in the process.
About a year ago, the NASN switched from its legacy, highly customized association management system to a modern SaaS AMS solution, and Conley made it her business to hold weekly meetings to review cases that had been submitted to the support desk.
“We’ll talk about any calls that required more time than we expected, and then we problem-solve as a group,” says Conley. “And every time we meet, there’s usually something big that gets discovered—like a new data point that we didn’t know existed—that energizes and improves our workflow.”
NASN’s workflow needed all the help it could get. Conley began work at the association over 20 years ago, and there were major issues with the legacy membership management system.
We didn’t have an AMS that allowed us to process renewals, donations and event registration all in one system. So, we were managing data in silos and everything was desktop-based. It was very clunky and difficult to keep current. This negatively impacted staff efficiency and our ability to engage with our members.
She recalls being at a high school and seeing a student who came into the nurse’s office for a daily glucose test.
‘The nurse helped the student take the test and walked them through interpreting the results and talked about their diet. It struck me that the nurse was teaching this young person skills to manage their chronic illness not just there in the school, but for the rest of their life. So, it brings a lot of personal pride to know that you are doing things behind the scenes at the association that is helping support school nurses who work so tirelessly to make children’s lives healthier every day.”
Having a smarter, more efficient AMS has powered NASN’s ability to support school nurses who work so tirelessly, says Conley. “I really enjoy being able to serve them.”
Change may be the only constant in business — but that doesn’t make organizational transformation any easier. Association leaders are balancing competing priorities and increasing demands, enough to make even the most driven executive fall victim to the inertia of the status-quo.
But not every association stays still while the world seems to change around them. For her willingness to upset the association technology status-quo, Impexium is proud to recognize Sharon Conley as one of 2019’s Association Technology Disruptors!